Tag: Virginia

WASHINGTON — As Virginia Democratic Gov. Justin Fairfax remains in the wings as the man who would replace him if Northam were to step down. While Northam apologized and asked for forgiveness on Saturday, he also noted that he maintained a good relationship with Fairfax, who would be America's fifth-ever black governor were he to take Northam's place. "Justin and I have a very, very close relationship," Northam said at the press conference Saturday. On Saturday, Fairfax released a statement saying he was "shocked and saddened" by the images that appeared in Northam's yearbook. "He also reached out to me personally to express his sincere regrets and to apologize." Fairfax said despite Northam's career of service to American children, soldiers and constituents, he could not condone the governor's actions from his past. Still, Northam’s admission that he darkened his face with shoe polish for a costume in the past is not the only reminder that that process is incomplete. I will be stepping off the dais today in protest of the Virginia Senate honoring Robert E. Lee. Virginia only allows elected governors to serve a single, four-year term.

“For me the scariest part is – and this has been said in the black community for decades – what happened this past week was that things we know exist came to the surface,” said Francesca Leigh-Davis, who co-hosts the RVA Dirt local politics radio show in Richmond, the Virginia state capital. To the outsider, Virginia has been moving left politically over the past decade, to the extent that some have mused whether the state, which brushes up against Washington, DC, in the north-east, should even still be considered part of ‘The South’, in the parlance of the US civil war. Simply because when you drive down the street in Richmond, there are confederate memorials. Monument Avenue, which runs from west Richmond towards the State Capitol, is a veritable rogues gallery of confederate figures. On Thursday there were again protests at Virginia’s capitol, although this time not over the blackface scandal. She thought Northam should resign because of the abortion bill, but was also turned off by the blackface controversy. The drive west from Richmond, through a barren landscape , leads to the town of Appomattox where the court house is one of the most important sites in US history. It’s not funny.” The political crisis in Virginia is a test for the Democratic party | Douglas Williams Read more Myers, 50, is only seven years younger than Herring, yet said he had never seen any of his contemporaries don shoe polish, dark makeup, or any other form of blackface. He was also troubled by the allegations against Fairfax. If any good ultimately comes from the sorry scandal in the corridors of state power, then one message at Heyer’s memorial might seem particularly relevant: “We all can create a better world,” it says.

Still, as John Warner, the former Republican senator of Virginia, put it recently, “It was a monumental chapter not just in Virginia history but in American history.” That state history on race and politics is now under intense scrutiny. Herring for behavior from a less-enlightened era before Mr. Wilder’s election. “This collection of scandals proves beyond a doubt that Virginia has not progressed as far as it thought it has — and it has a past it still hasn’t come to terms with,” said Mr. Sabato. It is hard to overstate how important race was to the segregationist Democratic machine, led by Senator Harry F. Byrd, that controlled Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. Few know that better than Mr. Wilder. That was three years after Mr. Philpott blocked Mr. Wilder’s attempt to enact a state holiday honoring Dr. King. Then, as a candidate for governor, Mr. Wilder campaigned aggressively across rural parts of the state, such as Mr. Philpott’s Southside, where the Confederacy was enshrined in history. Even now, the Jim Crow era of racist behavior like blackface is hardly an ancient epoch in Virginia. Virginians are still coming to grips with this latest chapter in their state’s history, with Mr. Northam determined to try to salvage his reputation and keep his job and Mr. “But it has been a tragic few days.”

WISE, Va. (WYMT) - Several political scandals hit top Virginia politicians in recent weeks. "I think it hurts the reputation of the Commonwealth," said UVa-Wise Political Science Professor Eric Drummond Smith. It started when a photo surfaced, allegedly showing governor Ralph Northam wearing black face "I think this is nasty and unpleasant but I think it is part of the necessary growing pains to become a more enlightened society," said Smith. Attorney General Mark Herring faces backlash for wearing blackface. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax is accused of sexual assault. "We have of the four constitutionally defined people in the Executive Branch three of them have now meshed in a scandal," said Smith. Republican State Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment is under fire for a yearbook he edited containing racist slurs and photos. "We need to start holding these people accountable, Like Northam and all of that, and we need to start pushing back on these racist views people have," said Nathan Fields, who lives in Virginia. Virginians say this reflects poorly upon the commonwealth. You can read more about the scandals here.

Woman claims she was raped by Justin Fairfax in 2000 while they were both students at Duke University; Trace Gallagher reports. #YourWorld #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well…

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring admits to wearing blackface during a college party in 1980 in a revelation that further roils the top levels of the state government. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to…

Eastern Virginia Medial School holds a news conference to discuss the investigation into Governor Ralph Northam's unacceptable photos in the student yearbook. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as…

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam asked his staffers to stand by as he decided his fate, while Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax denied a sexual assault allegation. The Morning Joe panel discusses. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news and…

An accusation of sexual assault against Lt. Gov. But as mainstream news outlets scrambled to confirm the photograph on Mr. Northam’s medical school yearbook page on Friday, it became clear that Big League Politics — and its mission of promoting the Trump agenda and nationalist causes — had assumed outsized influence in an increasingly Democratic state. A cloud also now hangs over the head of Mr. Fairfax, who would succeed Mr. Northam if he resigns, after Big League Politics published unsubstantiated accusations that he sexually assaulted a woman he met at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Patrick Howley, the editor in chief, said he received the photograph showing a pair of figures in blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes from a “concerned citizen,” declining to add more details. But one of Big League Politics’s owners, Noel Fritsch, described the source of the photograph as “some people who were classmates of Northam,” who brought it to light out of anger at the governor’s remarks early last week defending late-term abortions. In its mission statement, Big League Politics purports to be “not conservative” and “not liberal,” but it has trafficked in conspiracy theories favored by the far right, like the case of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staff member whose murder in Washington was falsely seized on by conservative commentators as linked to WikiLeaks. Last year, Mr. Fritsch was fired as a top aide by Corey Stewart, the Republican senatorial nominee in Virginia, after reports of anti-Muslim comments he had made on social media, as well as saying Senator John McCain “sold all his comrades down the river” as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Provocation is a stock-in-trade for right-wing writers in Washington, but former colleagues said Mr. Howley’s behavior, in public tweets and private emails, went beyond mischief and into darker territory. Later, at Breitbart News, Mr. Howley earned colleagues’ ire when he questioned the credibility of Michelle Fields, a Breitbart reporter who said she was assaulted by Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, at a Florida rally. “The fact The Washington Post did not run that despite in other cases running things about Brett Kavanaugh and other people based on thinner sourcing is, I think, a dereliction of duty,” he said.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s political future could be over -- largely because of how he handled the newly unearthed racist yearbook photo that sparked controversy across the country, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said Monday night. I don’t think he can survive much longer,” Hume told Bret Baier on Fox News’ “Special Report.” Last Wednesday, Northam was blasted for controversial abortion comments he made during a radio interview. Two days later, news outlets reported that a racist photo appeared on Northam’s medical school yearbook page. Hume said the Democrats want him out to cover up liberal xenophobia, because if Northam remains, “that will deprive them ... of charging racism against Republicans which they used effectively, if unfairly lately.” Northam faces a torrent of pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to resign, after the now-infamous yearbook photo surfaced showing someone in blackface and someone in a KKK costume on Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page. He added that he didn’t think Northam was a racist, nor did the people of Virginia. Observing most in his party have bailed on him, he added: “It’s hard to see somebody sticking around in that circumstance for very long.” Fox News' Bret Baier and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Frank Miles is a reporter and editor covering geopolitics, military, crime, technology and sports for FoxNews.com. His email is Frank.Miles@foxnews.com.